MU Student's Center (Huntington, West Virginia)

 office building, bookstore, cafeteria, 1971_construction, student center / student union

Current use: Offices of student government, student activities, and the minority student program. It includes a large central lounge, study areas, a cafeteria, three dining rooms, a snack bar, and meeting and conference rooms and the University bookstore.

Location: On Fifth Avenue on the south side of campus.
Designers: Dean & Dean, Architects, Huntington, WV.
Completed: 1971

Name: To commemorate the loss of the entire Marshall Football team in the 1970 plane crash.
With its oversailing, partly cylindrical pavilion serving as a pivot point for two symmetrical extended wings, this forceful building, together with the Smith Hall Complex,and the Morrow Library additions, marked the first departure from MU previously unambitious architectural work.

The main idea of the building is a great central circular space, which is the core of the interior room. The building extends its wings west and east of this great space, in a parallel line with 5th Avenue. The visitor has two ways of entering the building: from the 5th. Avenue, or from the Memorial Plaza, but the oversailing, curved canopy plays the role of a great mouth inviting people to enter inside, at both sides. The inside space is vast; it has a height of two stories, and has a central point of interest, the fireplace, that coincides with its vertical axis. A rail built with vertical wooden battens encircles the second floor that shares this central spatial core. An open staircase leads to the upper floor. Around the fireplace, many armchairs and drop tables gives comfort to gathering students. The circulation ring that surrounds this central space connects with the cafeteria, shops, student’s offices, restrooms, and other ancillary functional spaces. This is a typical place to meet people, to stay informally and to interact freely, besides the learning & teaching routine. This building functions as the central gathering point of students and faculty, at least in the winter season, as the surrounding spaces connecting the Drinko Library, Old Main and Memorial plaza are in spring and summertime.